Author
Topic: Star Wars Trilogy DVD Impressions (Read 4657 times)

SilverZ

If these new Special Special Editions are the only way to get the films in this kind of quality... I hate to say it, but I'm loving it. To me, the quality of the transfers outweighs the crappy Special Edition bits. But that's just me.

Totally agree. Once you're able to sit down and watch the movies, and see how goodfantastic they look, a lot of the SE grievances can be dismissed. To me, at least. It's high time to just relax and enjoy the damn movies. They still are great fun.

Did anyone pick up the new release of the soundtrack? I forgot to pick it up. There's been some confusion as to whether they are true SACDs or not... they've been listed as DSD mastered, but no one can confirm them being actual SACD discs. Weird.

Watched ANH tonight and it was like watching a whole new movie with a new set of eyes. I sort of sat there with a dumbfounded grin on my face that this was something I had never seen before. Trying to imagine myself in a theater in 1977.

The new color and sound make it seem like ANH is no longer technologically lacking in any way with the exception of some display screens and the Death Star Room

Wowza I cannot wait to see Empire and Jedi now...well worth the wait and I can't actually believe that I just that!

A couple of changes I noticed:

The Dragon Scream Obi-Wan yells to scare off the Tuskens is different

They added a Sound Effect in the Detention Block that was a constant oscillating tone, maybe its always been there but I really noticed it today

Vader in the older version used to continue and point and gesture at Tarkin in one scene without any dialogue (when they report there was a break in on the Detention Level) Looks like he's CGI there now

The boxes around the TIE's when the Falcon escapes are even more annoying now for some reason. That whole scene should eventually be CGI

Loved the new Lightsaber effects, loved the cleaned up color and that is the thing that impresses me the most of the whole thing so far. Amazing!

Watched ANH and about 40 minutes of ESB last night. Even with our piece of **** TV, they look great. Crisp, clear and they sound great.

I agree with Scott, the boxes around the TIEs were weird. I barely noticed them before and now they stand out like a sore thumb.

The Han-Greedo scene looks much better, but it's one of the few changes I'm still a little pissed at.

I noticed a few minor changes here and there - basically a few changes in dialoge and some additional sounds. There was definitely more screaming and moaning when Obi Wan cut off Ponda's arm. It's been awhile since I've watched these and I may not remember everything but the subtle changes are there.

Overall, I'm finally glad these are out on DVD and the changes really don't bother me that much and so far, they look and sound great. Now I just have to talk the wife into getting a better setup to watch these on.

Watched ANH tonight and it was like watching a whole new movie with a new set of eyes. I sort of sat there with a dumbfounded grin on my face that this was something I had never seen before. Trying to imagine myself in a theater in 1977.

I totally agree. I found myself noticing little details I never saw before! I kept thinking, "I've seen this movie 1,000,000 times before, how could I have not noticed that!"

It got so bad, I had to break out the THX non-special edition and Sepcial Edition on VHS to watch and compare. Dang, does ANH look fantastic now!

They seemed to have added a few lines of dialogue as well...C-3PO now says "We've stopped" at the Purchase of the Droids scene and the Stormies when they inspect the Falcon say "There's Nobody Here"

I'm still in awe at the beauty of the movie though, the cleaness of it all is amazing.

Jabba still looks like **** though, I think Episode I Jabba did as well. How hard can it be to replicate a puppet, it can't be, can it? Oh wait, they did that with Episode II Yoda didn't they? Jeeze Louise I wonder about them sometimes...

But that stuff is just nitpicky, overall I can say I am more than happy...Hoth tonight!!!

I watched ANH today. It was like a whole new movie. Still not sure why they didn't fix the part where Vader keeps gesturing to Tarkin yet no dialogue is spoken.

Did anyone else think Luke's saber during his training on the Falcon looked green at first and then more white than blue the rest of the time? I don't know why, but it just looked greenish/white and not anything near the blue of Obi-Wan's. Nice job cleaning up the sabers during the Vader/Obi-Wan duel. Always bugged me how they were so off compared to the other sabers.

And I'm in agreement that the TIE boxes were extremely annoying this time around.

Empire was good...I was amazed at the greens of Dagobah, never knew there was so much color there. Its been a blast watching both of these movies again. A couple of things...

I'm in agreement with rebeltrader on the Emperor scene now, the son of Anakin Skywalker stuff is sort of redundant. I guess though that the audience watching 1 through 6 would already know this and so maybe it makes some sense

Boba's lines were fine to me too, not really that bad at all, the accent is there but its Jango, Jango has the same thing. I didn't really notice any timing issues

*Most of the throne shots are pretty bland, there isn't much contrast and what should be black comes off more like a dark reddish brown. Vader's saber is pink. The framework on the windows are shotty looking. Put it this way - ROTJ wasn't given nearly as much TLC as A New Hope.

*Noticed a few instances of audio going haywire. Yoda's, "Feel like what?" didn't come through right, it sounded like it was a whisper in the back speaker.

Anyway, its great to finally have these on DVD, but I'm not going to have much mercy. I'm pretty pissed about ROTJ being neglected the way it has been. It's almost as if whoever was in charge of ANH/ESB's restoration, took a look at ROTJ and said, "Ah, I'm sure nobody will watch this one, anyway." As much time as these people had, there's no excuse for how bad the throne room duel looks.

I noticed a wierd thing with Yoda's dialogue when Yoda is on Luke's back and Luke asks "Is the darkside stronger?". When Yoda answers he says "No.", then there's a mumble and he says, "Easier. More Seductive"

I noticed it in the documentary when they showed a clip and on the DVD so I guess it's always been there but I never noticed it.

Has anyone else noticed this? Anybody know what the whole line is/should be?

Got a chance to watch ANH and ESB yesterday, and hopefully ROTJ tonight or this weekend. I'm glad to see that many of you have been noticing the same things, feeling the same way about the DVDs as I have. I agree with what Scott said, it was like watching new movies for the first time. I kept commenting to my wife throughout both movies that I just couldn't believe how different, clearer, and better the movies looked.

I also noticed so many differences on Dagobah. To me the whole planet and scenes on that planet seemed to be cast in a muddy brown color, but on these new DVDs, everything stands out so well. Yoda is more color defined, and all the greens that can be seen in the Dagobah environment, everything just looks so nice.

To be honest, the changes I have seen so far in the first two movies haven't really bothered me. I would have been fine with them leaving Boba's voice alone, but I guess it doesn't sound terrible. The new Emperor scene, while the dialogue could have just stayed the same IMO, is probably an improvement visual-wise. The new hologram looks better I think. Jabba in ANH looks better than the original SE version, but still seems like they could do better than that. While the Jabba doesn't look terrible, it doesn't look like the ROTJ version...and that sort of bothers me.

Anyways, little quibbles and changes aside, I am so happy to have these on DVD. The movies truly have never looked better, at least of the ones I've seen (ANH and ESB), the sound is improved, and it is just a great way to enjoy my favorite movies of all time. I keep saying it, but it is just amazing to me how different the movies look from the SE VHS tapes I bought (just a couple years back). A great improvement, and I'm looking forward to watching Jedi soon too.

I noticed a wierd thing with Yoda's dialogue when Yoda is on Luke's back and Luke asks "Is the darkside stronger?". When Yoda answers he says "No.", then there's a mumble and he says, "Easier. More Seductive"

I noticed it in the documentary when they showed a clip and on the DVD so I guess it's always been there but I never noticed it.

Has anyone else noticed this? Anybody know what the whole line is/should be?

I watched it last night at work on my portable DVD player. Awesome picture on this little unit, the sound & man is it clear!

As for the scene, right after Yoda's little training speech, Luke says "Vader. Is the dark side stronger?"Yoda replys, "No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive". Quicker is said very fast & sounds like a mumble.

I noticed a wierd thing with Yoda's dialogue when Yoda is on Luke's back and Luke asks "Is the darkside stronger?". When Yoda answers he says "No.", then there's a mumble and he says, "Easier. More Seductive"

I noticed it in the documentary when they showed a clip and on the DVD so I guess it's always been there but I never noticed it.

Has anyone else noticed this? Anybody know what the whole line is/should be?

I watched it last night at work on my portable DVD player. Awesome picture on this little unit, the sound & man is it clear!

As for the scene, right after Yoda's little training speech, Luke says "Vader. Is the dark side stronger?"Yoda replys, "No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive". Quicker is said very fast & sounds like a mumble.